I'm looking for extensive, detailed accounts of the best/biggest bank
heists in history, with a focus on the last 10 years. I do not want
robberies that involved break-ins during the day while the banks were
open, but after hours, where a safe was somehow defeated.

Dear mattdemaret-ga;
Thank you for allowing me to answer your interesting question. As it
turns out especially notorious crimes like this are also an interest
of mine, especially in cases where unique, elaborate and clever
planning was involved or the plan netted exraordinarily valuable
fruits of the crime. Having actually captured one of the FBI's TOP TEN
MOST WANTED bank robbers (#2 on the list) myself in my early years of
law enforcement I continue to take special interest in the history of
bank heists to this day.
First, we need to clear up some common misnomers. The term ?robbery?
is often used incorrectly when it comes to covert thefts from banks or
financial institutions. Statutorily speaking, one cannot ?rob? another
except by force or threat of force so while a "robbery" may be
unexpected at the onset, it cannot be entirely covert.
GOOGLE
Define:robbery
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3Arobbery
Therefore it is impossible to secretly ?rob? a bank in the night. The
technical term for such an act is ?burglary?:
GOOGLE
Define:burglary
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=define%3Aburglary
The exception to this rule is when one or two security personnel are
present after hours and become overpowered, threatened, intimidated,
etc, and the bank is subsequently burglarized. Though statutorily
(because force was used) a robbery does ultimately take place, a
covert burglary is essentially the premeditated goal.
Literally thousands of bank robberies occur every year but only a few
hundred ?bank burglaries? or attempted burglaries of the type you are
referring to occur in the same period. Of those, only a few of them
are ever considered successful or even partially successful. In spite
of what we often see on the big screen this tends to make what you are
looking for a significantly rare event and even rarer still if we look
only at incidents in the past 10 years when it has become so much
easier (and safer; no pun intended) to steal money in other ways. With
that in mind let?s see what we can come up with:
Not all bank burglaries involve nitroglycerine, drills, tumblers or
safecrackers. Sometimes defeating the safe can be achieved in many
other ways. Take, for example, this one. The first and most notorious
incident in terms of ?loot? that comes to mind is what history is
calling the largest bank heist ever. That crime took place almost
simultaneously with the first bombs falling on Baghdad when Saddam
Hussein sent his men and three tractor-trailers to load almost 1
billion dollars in cash from the Central Bank of Baghdad, which had
been closed due to the impending allied invasion. While the theft did
not involve elaborate manipulation of the bank?s vault, it did include
a premeditated plan to enlist the aid of the bank?s Governor, Isam
Huwaish, who went into the closed bank with the men and used his keys
and codes to simply open the vault for them.
CENTRAL BANKING
http://www.centralbanking.co.uk/newsmakers/archive/2003/may12.htm#1
TELEGRAPH
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/05/wsadd05.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/05/ixnewstop.html
Another excellent example is the heist that took place during weekend
of August 6-8, 2005 at the Central Bank in Fortaleza, Brazil. These
guys had such a great plan involving an elaborate 255 ft. tunnel they
dug for three months, that they pulled it off twice on the same bank
over the course of three days. One suspect was eventually arrested on
suspicion of planning several bank robberies with the use of secret
tunnels and was thrown into prison in Sao Paulo. However, the clever
thief eventually escaped. How? By digging a secret tunnel, of course.
You?ve gotta love the irony of that!
BANKERS ONLINE
http://www.bankersonline.com/security/burrowingburglars.html
(be sure to see the links at the bottom too)
Images: http://www.local6.com/slideshow/news/4829353/detail.html?qs=1;s=1;p=news&dm=ss&tn=b
WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banco_Central_burglary_at_Fortaleza
DAILY TEXAN ONLINE
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2005/08/10/WorldNation/Thieves.Tunnel.For.Largest.Bank.Heist-966406.shtml?norewrite200611171419&sourcedomain=www.dailytexanonline.com
(See also page 2)
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2005/08/10/WorldNation/Thieves.Tunnel.For.Largest.Bank.Heist-966406-page2.shtml?norewrite200611171420&sourcedomain=www.dailytexanonline.com
WASHINGTON POST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/12/AR2006021201082.html
Here are some other especially notorious but clever heists:
-- Securitas company cash center at Tonbridge in Kent County, England.
This incident involves robbery, burglary, kidnapping, ransom, and all
things worthy of a motion picture script. It took place overnight and
involved a very elaborate plan that in turn involved bank personnel
and some of their family members. As heists go, this one was
marvelously done.
OBSERVER
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,,1718160,00.html
--Brinks Mat Ltd., Heathrow Airport
This one is a heist gone wrong but an enormous heist nonetheless. A
gang intended to break into a bank and steal $3 million in cash with
the help of an insider. When they got in they found $26 million in
gold that they didn?t plan on finding and had no plan to easily get it
out.
CASE CLOSED
http://www.bbc.co.uk/crime/caseclosed/brinksmat.shtml
-- The Millennium Dome Heist
Here?s another James Bond type heist gone terribly wrong and while it
actually failed the plan was really good; this time the plan involved
a bulldozer, nail guns and ammonia. You just have to read it to
believe it. Unfortunately for the burglars, who had their sights on
the spectacular millennium jewels, the police already had THEM in
under surveillance.
CASE CLOSED
http://www.bbc.co.uk/crime/caseclosed/domeheist.shtml
Still other detailed incidents worth mentioning
-- The Antwerp Diamond Center Heist
CRIME LIBRARY
http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/outlaws/major_heists/2.html
-- Sumitomo Mitsui Bank (Japan)
CRIME LIBRARY
http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/outlaws/major_heists/6.html
This is a failed heist that involved elaborate tools and plans using
complex keyloggers and other 007-type equipment to fool the security
system. It almost worked and fell just short of netting the criminals
an astonishing $423 million dollars!
-- Northern Bank in Belfast
This one started out as a raid on several bankers? homes and also
involved kidnapping. But the simplicity of the actual crime that took
place at the bank is what is most astonishing. The intimidated bank
officials, under threat of harm to their families, simply remained
inside when the bank closed, let the burglars in, and they stole the
loot from the vault in the night.
CRIME LIBRARY
http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/outlaws/major_heists/index.html
-- British Bank of the Middle East
This one dates back a bit too far to be of interest (1976) but it?s
worth mentioning also. Dubbed ?Arafat?s Bank Robbery? it involved an
elaborate (and successful) plan to recruit an entire team of
professional ?safecrackers? and to blow out a wall in an adjoining
church to get them access to the vault in the bank.
LEBANESE FORCES
http://www.lebaneseforces.com/blastfromthepast001.asp
I hope you find that my answer exceeds your expectations. If you have
any questions about my research please post a clarification request
prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher
INFORMATION SOURCES
Defined above
RECOMMENDED READING
?SUPERTHIEF?
?Superthief is a captivating firsthand look at the life of Phil
Christopher, a career criminal, Mafia associate, and the most
sucessful bank burglar in the U.S. In a raw and candid accounting,
Rick Porrello takes his readers inside Phil's brutal street world and
prison life and exposes the details behind the planning and execution
of his daring and record-setting 1972 United California Bank Burglary
in Orange County, California. The UCB burglary is the biggest in U.S.
history and has been featured in documentaries on Court TV and the
Discovery Channel.?
http://www.rickporrello.com/superthief/
(This book recounts events that took place in the 1970?s but it a
fascinating look at how master bank burglars ?do their thing?)
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
BANK
BURGLLARY
ROBBERY
HEIST
SAFE
VAULT
STEAL
PLAN
ELABORATE
DEFEAT
CRACK
CAPER

I apologize for my failing memory but lest I risk building myself up
unfairly I must confess a relatively minor error. The fugitive I
referred to earlier was actually #8 on the Top Ten list and not #2 if
memory now serves me right.
It was, after all, a long, long time ago. But hey, what's the
difference between a few places on the 10 most dangerous dudes in
America list?
Dad

Here's an excerpt of an answer I posted some time back that mentioned
a bit about it:
He was a bank robber about whom little is written (with the exception
of the ?Miami Herald? feature mentioned below), named GILBERT JAMES
EVERETT. In 1981 Everett became the 376th criminal to make the FBI?s
Top Ten Most Wanted list and eventually worked his way up to #8. He
was a master of deception and assumed the identity of a number of
people in the course of his criminal career. Over the years, Everett
had managed to escape from prison on not one, but two occasions and
had robbed 64 banks in several different states. His methods were not
that sophisticated, but he was ?extremely? prolific. After a
harrowing, car slamming, 17-mile high-speed pursuit on a evening in
August 1985, Everett was finally captured. He had assumed a man?s name
and had all his identification details memorized. His fatal error came
a few hours later when he sat down to talk to an FBI agent directly in
front of his own wanted poster. Although this man was convicted of his
crimes, to this day the money from these 64 banks has never been found
and it?s whereabouts is still an unsolved mystery that he has yet to
cooperate on. Presumably, if there is any money left out there, only
he knows where it is.
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=224514
?MIAMI HERALD?: ?TO ROB A BANK?
By ANGIE CANNON AND DAVID MARCUS
Published on January 5, 1986, Page 8, Miami Herald, The (FL)
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/archives/
WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI_Ten_Most_Wanted_Fugitives,_1980s#Gilbert_James_Everett
GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVE SEARCH
http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=%22gilbert+james+everett%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
And no, I did not collect the reward.
Enjoy;
tutuzdad-ga

mattdemaret-ga
rated this answer:
and gave an additional tip of:
$20.00

Thanks. This is just what I'm looking for. I'd love to know more
about how and who you caught. Sounds like a whale of a story.

Comments

Subject:
Re: bank robbery
From:
markvmd-ga
on
17 Nov 2006 19:44 PST

Tutuzdad, your explanation of robbery versus burglary reminds me of a
joke from college English days.
How did you know it was an English professor whose house was broken into?
He into the strett yelling, "I've been burgled! I've been burgled!"

Mattdemaret-ga,
For an excellent and very entertaining, albeit fictional, bank robbery
I recommend Christopher Brookmyre's 'The Sacred Art of Stealing'.

Subject:
Re: bank robbery
From:
markvmd-ga
on
19 Nov 2006 19:29 PST

Myoarin, while I am pickled tink to be placed in the same league as
Kemlo (as well as Klemo, Klome, and the great enlightened ungulate
Elk-Om, I am no more a Hover than a Scientologist Blinker can.
My occasional use of a Britishism is no more than my being an
Anglophile who owns an MG and discovered the Two Ronnies at the age of
seven (that is, I was seven; they were already ancient), which led to
an interest in all humoUr from our trans-Atlantic cousins, with the
exception of Jasper Carrot who is absolutely insufferable save for his
"I've got a mole" routine.
Attached below is the missing word "ran" from the third sentence of my
above posted comment (place it between "he" and "into") along with an
"e" to replace a "t" that does not belong. If a GAR would please ask
g00gle to send me the extra "t" or just put it on account and I'll use
it later, I will be very appreciative.
ran e

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